The charges stemmed from a defamation suit brought by a local
attorney, Robert Riley, Jr., son of a two-term former Alabama governor and a
rumored future political candidate himself. The suit was related to
Shuler's blog
posts in July 2013 that claimed Riley had an extramarital affair and had
paid for his mistress to have an abortion. Riley vehemently denied the allegations.

In an interview with CPJ, Riley said he had a right to seek
injunctive relief in a defamation case and that there was legal precedent for
doing so. He said someone who decided "to make up a lie, destroy someone's
reputation, that's not journalism."

As the case was pending, the Circuit Court of Shelby County issued
a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction prohibiting Shuler
from publishing more about the alleged affair. When Shuler continued to
publish stories about
Riley on his blog, the lawyer filed a petition asking
that the blogger be held in contempt. He was arrested weeks later.

Leading press freedom and civil rights groups said the injunction
contradicted decades of First Amendment jurisprudence and did so in complete
secrecy, as all records in the case were initially sealed by the court. The
Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press wrote:
"Neither a default judgment nor a full adjudication on the merits of the
defamation claims appears to have occurred. ... Courts have determined that
bans on speech prior to such determinations are prior restraints. The Supreme
Court has found prior restraints to be presumptively unconstitutional and has
never upheld one."

On November 12, 2013, the judge in the case filed a permanent
injunction against Shuler and said he would unseal the court documents.
In a footnote in the ruling, the judge said Shuler would remain imprisoned
until he complied with the order to remove the statements. Carol Shuler wrote on Legal
Schnauzer at the time that her husband said in court that he could not
remove the content from a jail cell. The blogger wrote on Legal Schnauzer after his release that
"removal of the Web items was not our desired outcome" but that his wife had
done it to get him out of jail.

In his March 2014 ruling, Judge Claud Neilson warned the blogger that
he would have to comply with the November permanent injunction in the future or
be held in contempt of court again, according to the local news website Al.com.

Several foreign news outlets required to register as foreign agents in US

July 2, 2019 3:30 PM ET

Since 2017, U.S. legislators and the Department of Justice have required multiple foreign-funded news organizations to register under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), a law designed to compel transparency from agents of foreign entities operating inside the United States, according to news reports, public records, and letters from...

Unarmed man shot trying to storm local TV station in Washington, DC

October 23, 2018 1:03 PM ET

In the afternoon of October 22, 2018, a man tried to force his away into the offices of Fox 5, a local television station in Washington D.C. The station released security camera footage showing the man bashing in two sets of glass doors with his foot, eventually gaining entrance to...

Newspaper carriers shot at on Nez Perce Indian Reservation

October 15, 2018 4:28 PM ET

An unknown assailant fired multiple shots at Lewiston Tribune newspaper carriers Donna and Dane Correll on October 8, 2018, outside Lapwai, a small city in northwest Idaho that serves at the seat of government of the Nez Perce Indian Reservation, the Tribune reported. The shooting occurred as they were...

HuffPost journalist and colleagues receive online threats

June 12, 2018 10:20 AM ET

At least 11 journalists at HuffPost, their families and others were harassed and threatened online in late May and early June 2018, Lydia Polgreen, editor in chief at HuffPost, told CPJ. The harassment came after the outlet published a piece written by reporter Luke O'Brien that identified the person...

Reporter arrested covering Memphis protest held in US immigration detention

April 24, 2018 5:27 PM ET

Manuel Duran, the founder of Spanish-language news site Memphis Noticias, was arrested on April 3, 2018, while reporting on a protest against immigration detention in Memphis, Tennessee. Although the charges against Duran were dropped, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) transferred the reporter to a facility in Louisiana two days...